Don't Delegate your Thinking!

How to Ensure you're Not Manipulated

Life is difficult. What an awesome start to psychiatrist Dr. Scott Peck's seminal book, The Road Less Travelled.

So Much to Learn!

Life is also complex, so much to learn and so many rules to follow. There are so many laws and regulations on the books in America it's been said that, reading eight hours a day every day without a break for your whole life, it's impossible to read them all!

Science breaks down life's complexity to make it more approachable by splitting knowledge into different areas, such as medicine, archeology and mathematics. This scientific approach is also applicable to the area of metaphysics which, very loosely, is the study of natural laws and processes.

These empowerment articles address different but related processes which increase comprehension and suggest principles to help you increase your personal power. They systematically correlate common processes and advocate strategies. You'll change your life when you get natural processes working for you - rather than against you.

Overcome your Self Sabotage

Self sabotage is complex as well as widespread so one secret of success is to simplify. Improve your understanding! There doesn't seem to be one word for life's processes and the effective perspectives, principles and strategies that increase your personal power, so we've adopted the Eastern Buddhist philosophy's word koan (pr: co-an).

At Life Strategies, the word koan means a powerful perspective which may change your understanding of cause and effect. A distinction, another viewpoint, a different way of looking at an incident, a situation, or even a phrase which suggests a more effective strategy to increase your inner power. This is, of course, quite different to the Zen Buddhist usage of the word.

Hence the immense value in writing down a koan. Doing so invests your time and effort which moves its new perspective from just understanding to genuine knowledge. This can change your life, it stores your energy for later use in becoming more effective.

This is the same as getting physically fit. You can read about sports, and enjoy watching them, but unless you actually work out yourself, you don't get fit. Although many people fail to understand, you can't delegate your thinking, just as you can't delegate your exercise!

Using your New Power

To make effective use of a powerful new perspective, you need it to become your truth, rather than just something you know about. So invest the time and energy it takes to be able to say, without reservation, that a koan's new perspective is now your truth. Then you have its energy, the increase in personal power improves your results with less effort forever.

Life will bring you lots of opportunities to practice. You'll find situations come up where you can either use the increased power from a koan's new perspective, or deal with it in the same old way. Yet there's no change without change. Unless you improve the way you handle things, how can your results improve?

As you increase your understanding and become more effective, your extra inner power will change your life, it becomes easier to overcome your self sabotage. So, just like physical exercise, invest the time and effort to make a new perspective your truth and enjoy the increase in personal power for the rest of your life.

Food for Thought

"Change. It has the power to uplift, to heal, to stimulate, surprise, open new doors, bring fresh experience and create excitement in life. Certainly it is worth the risk."